RUSSIA'S CIVIL WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 170, 18 July 1919, Page 4

RUSSIA'S CIVIL WAR.

Tho further reverse suffered by Admiral Kolchak is a serious blow to the hopes of a speedy victory of the Russian anti-Bolshevik forces, but against it has to be set the recent sweeping successes of his colleague, General Dcnckin, the commander of the Don Cossacks, in South-eastern Russia. Dcnckin has been greatly helped by British munitions, supplied to him by way of the Black Sea, and it is probable that Kolchak's retreat has been enforced by the opposite cause, lack of material. The Bolshevik armies are blockaded, Denekin's forces being to the. south, Kolchak's armies on the east, tho Ural Cossacks on the south-easf, and mixed Allied forces on the north and west. The Bolsheviks claim to have twelve armies in the field, but we know little of the strength or composition of these armies. Five of them arc opposing Dcnekin, four arc operating against Kolchak, one against the Ural Cossacks, and only two arc left for repulsing attacks on the other fronts. The main object of Lenin and Trotsky is to win in this eastern and southern contest, since if they assert themselves over their Russian enemies they will endeavour to represent tho country as being solidly behind them, and then they will call on all Russians to resist the Allied forces as being foreign invaders. For that reason the recent advance of the Don Cossacks is of especial interest, and the manner in which the prisoners deserted Lenin and his associates shows how little many of the Bolshevik soldiers really believe in the cause for which they are called upon to fight. The bulk of the Bolshevik armies are compelled to either fight or starve,.for Lenin has established a most complete tyranny by gaining control of all supplies and refusing food to all those who do not support his cause. This constitutes a far worse tyranny than anything known under the worst of the Czars, and doubtless many of the 200,000 prisoners reported as being cttptured by General Denekin and his Cossacks surrendered willingly in order to escape tho harsh conditions of the Bolshevik regime. Denekin and Kolchak have both the same aim, to establish some form of constitutional government in Russia, and put an end to the anarchy and misery which Bolshevism has brought in its train. When they have overthrown the tyranny of Lenin and his followers they hope to work for a reunited Russia, calling a people's assembly ou .the basis of universal suffrage. Denekin favours the decentralisation of power, regional autonomy, and the greatest amount of local self-govern-ment possible. Ho also guarantees full religious and civil liberty, favours the passage of labour laws protecting the working classes against exploitation, and desires the immediate enactment of laud reforms to satisfy the needs of tho peasants. The internal state of those parts of Russia under the rule of the Bolsheviks is such that the population is being reduced. The population of Petrograd has fallen from three millions to half a million, and the whole of Central Russia is in the grip of cholera and famine. There is little but paper money, and the rouble notes have so fallen in value that they can now be. bought at the rate of three a penny. The peasants naturally decline to sell their produce for such worthless paper, and their refusal has been met by a forcible seizure of their goods. Fierce bread riots have taken place in Moscow and other towns, and these have only been suppressed by a ruthless use. of machine-guns. The Allies arc seeking to help the Russians to restore something like order, and to put an end to a state of affairs that is , fraught with so much misery and deanajr Ito the Russians themselves.